(TFT) In Response to "An Open Letter"

[ErolB1@aol.com]

There are any number of places on the internet where one can discuss 
adventure design and storytelling. But there is only the TFT list as a place to 
discuss TFT - the rules, possible rule changes, and the worldbuilding of campaigns 
that are run using TFT rules and rule variants. So I intend to keep posting 
about such until the list owner tells me to stop. The list owner, mind, not some 
self-styled authority who considers adventure design and stories to be the 
most important thing to post to this list. 

Now if people want to post about TFT adventure design, adventure stories, and 
finished adventures, they're perfectly welcome to do so as far as I'm 
concerned. I'll even go so far as to say that I'll be mildly interested in such 
things. I do object, however, to those who tell me, in effect, that I should only 
post about such things myself or else STFU. 

My game doesn't have formal and written-down "adventures" or "stories." When 
I run a game, the characters of my players interact with the game world, both 
via game mechanics and via the non-game-mechanical parts of the world. (And I 
work *very* hard to make sure the two parts complement each other and don't 
come into conflict.) These are usually interesting interactions, but they're 
rarely part of any sort of pre-planned "adventure" and rarely form the sort of 
neat package that could be called a "story." 

Instead, I mostly run using the "wing it" method, based on having a lot of 
little world-building bits: Sgt. Edward Lizardman is the person actually in 
charge of the city watch in Robono, the official head, Captain Sir Peter Peabody 
being a nonentity. And "Edward" is a perfectly normal and unexceptional name 
for a lizardman in the Million Kingdoms. Or for a goblin, orc, elf, dwarf, or 
giant. Because of the Curse of Djrassi. Robono has a "dwarven quarter" like most 
towns and cities in the Million Kingdoms, but most of the races aren't 
separate. Even someone who grew up out in a small rural village will have known 
members of races other than his own... And so on and so forth - that's just one 
thread. 

But this is the TFT list, not a worldbuilding list, and while I am very 
interested in worldbuilding, I'm more interested in TFT and its game mechanics. 

Finally, I find it rather rich that David Michael Grouchy II claims to be so 
concerned with stories. The classic description of a story that fails to work 
are the Eight Deadly Words ("I don't care what happens to those characters!")  
Yet David Michael Grouchy II is the one who posted: 

#     What kind of GM am I?
# Killer GM, everyone dies, early and often.  
# After about six or seven deaths, if I feel you 
# are no longer attached to your character's fate, 
# I may consider letting them live.

I couldn't think of a better parody of a GM who was out to kill stories dead 
dead dead - *deliberately* setting out to engineer the Eight Deadly Words in 
his players - if I had a month to do nothing but think about it. 

Erol K. Bayburt


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